Is College a Scam? Should you buy a franchise instead?
Sean Kelly started an interesting post about the value of a college education as opposed to purchasing a franchise.
There are two neat points he makes. First, the correlation between higher income and a college degree is may be accidental -those who go to college may already be selected for a better income stream. Second, apparently there are a lot of individuals, 33%, listed on the Forbes 400 who don't have a college degree.
My own view is that college and university are largely wasted if you are not intellectually curious. And if you are intellectually curious, both college and university can be a complete nightmare as you try maintain the rigourous reading schedule.
Here is the entire article. Write Sean and leave him your thoughts.
My post Wise Up! Skip College. Buy a Franchise! provoked some strong reactions, most notably from those whose meager livelihood depends on the perpetuation of the myth of the college diploma as a good investment. Few scam victims are willing to come forward, so the myth goes on.Benjamin Welch wrote an earnest, though misguided, response to my post called College Degrees: What’s Their Real Value? Since Ben ‘has been a college instructor in writing and composition for nearly six years,’ he knows the myth better than anyone. Ben, I was a ‘college instructor in writing and composition’ too. I was teaching 130 students during the week and playing drinking songs at an Irish pub Fridays & Saturday nights. Guess which job payed more?
Ben claims ‘any pundits who claim, sarcastically or not, that a college just isn’t worth the trouble or the money, are in error.’ He uses two common fallacies to support this contention: that ‘some people have succeeded without degrees, but they belong to a small minority,’ and that those with college degrees earn more than a million extra bucks because of their magic diplomas.
A small minority of successful people lack college degrees? Who’s been ‘smoking doobies down by the river’ Ben? In 2003, the percentage of Forbes 400 members without college degrees was 33%. That’s a small minority? The average net worth of a Forbes 400 member without college degree: $2.27 billion. With a degree: $2.13 billion.
But the real sleight-of-hand parlor trick is the statement that those with college diplomas earn ‘$30,000 more annually than someone with only a high school diploma. Over the course of a working lifetime, that’s more than million dollars.’
Hmmm… If the average income of Beluga caviar consumers is $500K annually, does that mean that if I eat whale eggs weekly I’ll earn $500K? Where’s proof of cause and effect? College-goers are more likely to be white, privileged, better-educated and probably (as a group) smarter than those who don’t go to college. They’d be no less white, privileged, better-educated and probably (as a group) smarter without their degrees. Can diploma apologists contend, with a straight face, that people like Warren Buffett, Ralph Lauren, Steven Spielberg, Donald Trump, Oprah, and Martha Stewart would not have achieved their success without their degrees?
To correct Mr. Welch’s well-crafted, but misguided, conclusion: ’In the final analysis, the grounds for [defending] the worth of a college degree are based either on poor math or logical fallacies — two errors, ironically, that a college education is supposed to correct.’
WHAT DO YOU THINK? IS A COLLEGE DEGREE NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS? ISN’T A FRANCHISE A BETTER INVESTMENT?
Comments
Davis,
As a reformed academic, I nonetheless retain my love for pure research.
But, and I maintained this as an 18 year old, most of us should not be going to University right out of high school -we need to accomplish and be held accountable for projects.
In the history of humankind, at no time have we produced so many individuals who have never tasted the yoke of responsibility until they were into their 20's.
Sean's point was that a number of these people might do much better by investing the opportunity costs of college in a franchise and giving it a real go. I am not sure that he is wrong, but I am sure that too many individuals simply find themselves at University for no other reason than their friends went also.
Posted by: michael webster
|
July 9, 2007 10:08 PM
When you are starting out in life, it's easy to make a lot of foolish decisions. There are a few prodigy superstars, but by and large, most high school graduates don't know enough about life to run a successful business.
Some would lose their money, but would learn more and some would actually make money, but a lot of teenagers would mis-spend their capital because they wouldn't know what was important and what was teenage instinct.
There is a lot of wasted information learned in college and it's academics can be very disconnected from life in the real world, but the education teaches young minds how to think and when you know how to process information, it enables you to succeed in business and in life.
If your heart's not in it, there isn't a payoff, but if you have the intellectual curiosity, it's the best investment a young mind can make.
Posted by: Davis Freeberg | July 9, 2007 9:02 PM